AMOR
AMOR (Antioquia Women's Association)
AMORAMOR is a women's group based in Eastern Antioquia. The organization believes that the conflict in Colombia affects its female population as deeply as it does its male. It works to support women in all aspects of their lives. Some of AMOR's projects include psychological support to women who have lost family members to the war, training to help women assume the role of sole provider for their families, support for women who have been sexually violated or physically abused as well as a project called "from the home to the town square" ("de la casa a la plaza"), which aims to give women the tools to transform themselves from housewives and mothers to professional women.
De la Casa a la Plaza: AMOR and Women in Colombia
AMOROriginally published in the Fall 2006 issue of Fellowship magazine
By Ursula Miniszewski
The Association of Organized Women from Eastern Antioquia (a region in Colombia), AMOR, illustrates a unique and transformative approach in Latin America to armed struggle. AMOR’S work confines itself neither to the private, domestic sphere nor to the public, more political sphere. Rather, its mission encompasses both: first, by training and encouraging women to enter public spaces, but also second, because these women have not forgotten about the private impact of war, including the physical and emotional implications for families and communities. The women of AMOR reach across class and ethnic lines finding unity in their pain and in their sincere belief that together they can bring about a change and resolution to the raging civil conflict.
AMOR article in Semana
AMOR"Life Goes On"
From Semana, Aug. 14-21 edition #1.267
translated by Gilberto Villaseñor
Sixty-four Antioqueñan women recently graduated as “huggers†from a course in supporting victims of the conflict.
Fidelina Ocampo was convinced that her husband listened to her talk everyday while she prepared lunch in her house in AlejandrÃa, Antioquia. She even refused to let anyone sit on her kitchen stool saying, “don’t you see that my husband is there.†But her husband wasn’t listening, nor sat in the kitchen. He had been hacked to pieces by paramilitaries more than a year ago, and authorities have only recovered a black boot and a piece of his skin.
